pserv 2.x

NOTE: This version is obsolete. Information on this page is kept up only for those easily amused by historical information. Information on the current version can be found here.

pserv.cpl is a Windows NT/2000 Control Panel Applet that

I wrote it partly because of being annoyed with that dreaded piece of badly designed crap called Windows 2000 MMC.

Screenshots

Services

Devices

Properties

Processes

Events

Modules

Uninstaller

Other new stuff

Command line switches: MACHINE, DEVICES, APPEVENTS, SYSEVENTS, SECURITYEVENTS, UNINSTALLER, PROCESSES and MODULES. Nuff said

Here is a hopefully instructive example:

...
pserv2 /RESTART Apache2
...
pserv2 /DUMPXML services.xml
pserv2 /DEVICES /DUMPXML devices.xml
...

XML Templates

Starting with 2.2, pserv.cpl has a nice feature that lets you import pserv.xml files and compare them with the current set of services running.

A simple example: You install Windows XP and then manually disable all those "trustworthy" services with funny names like "Background Intelligent Transfer Service" or "Automatic Updates" and other nmap material. HOWEVER, next time you do windows update, there they are up again. Yikes.

But, now you can fight back: disable all services you don't want to have, and save your settings as XML file (menu Templates\Export as XML). Then, when you want to get your settings back, choose Templates\Apply XML template. A dialog will show all changes suggested to your current service configuration.

Download

The current version is 2.7. It is released as freeware with a very liberal, BSD-style license. Source included. Use at own risk. The Download includes an standlone installer. The pserv.cpl history includes links to older versions...

Note: If you are a graphics designer and you have some spare time, please consider if you want to help the progress of pserv.cpl by designing a list of toolbar icons for it. Admittedly, the current set of icons pretty much sucks ;)